On the record
You have not so much as the honest, responsible scratch of one single pen, to justify you in the exercise of the power you have taken upon yourself to exercise.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “You have not so much as the honest, responsible scratch of one single pen, to justify you in the exercise of the power…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner emphasizes the lack of legitimate authority behind the power exercised by government officials.
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More from Lysander Spooner
And yet these reasons, which are really no reasons at all, are the only ones, so far as I know, that have ever been offered for this absurd and brutal doctrine.
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
There is no more absurdity in giving a jury a veto upon the laws, than there is in giving a veto to each of these other tribunals.
It was a principle of the Common Law, as it is of the law of nature, and of common sense, that no man can be taxed without his personal consent.